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CHAPTER V. ON GONORRHŒA.

GONORRHŒA is not, indeed, a deadly affection, but one that
is disagreeable and disgusting even to hear of. For if impotence
and paralysis possess both the fluids and genital organs, the semen
runs as if through dead parts, nor can it be stopped even in sleep;
for whether asleep or awake the discharge is irrestrainable, and
there is an unconscious flow of semen. Women also have this
disease, but their semen is discharged with titillation of the parts,
and with pleasure, and from immodest desires of connection
with men. But men have not the same prurient feelings; the
fluid which runs off being thin, cold, colourless, and unfruitful.
For how could nature, when congealed, evacuate vivifying
semen? And even young persons, when they suffer from this
affection, necessarily become old in constitution, torpid, relaxed,
spiritless, timid, stupid, enfeebled, shrivelled, inactive,
pale, whitish, effeminate, loathe their food, and become frigid;
they have heaviness of the members, torpidity of the legs, are
powerless, and incapable of all exertion. In many cases, this
disease is the way to paralysis; for how could the nervous
power not suffer when nature has become frigid in regard to
the generation of life? For it is the semen, when possessed of

vitality, which makes us to be men, hot, well braced in limbs,
hairy, well voiced, spirited, strong to think and to act, as the
characteristics of men prove. For when the semen is not possessed
of its vitality, persons become shrivelled, have a sharp
tone of voice, lose their hair and their beard, and become
effeminate, as the characteristics of eunuchs prove. But if any
man be continent in the emission of semen, he is bold, daring,
and strong as wild beasts, as is proved from such of the athletæ
as are continent. For such as are naturally superior in strength
to certain persons, by incontinency become inferior to their
inferiors; while those by nature much their inferiors by continency
become superior to their superiors: but an animal
becomes strong from nothing else than from semen. Vital
semen, then, contributes much to health, strength, courage,
and generation. From satyriasis a transition takes place to an
attack of gonorrhœa.

The Extant Works of Aretaeus, The Cappadocian. Aretaeus. Francis Adams LL.D. Boston. Milford House Inc. 1972 (Republication of the 1856 edition).

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